Democratic-led state election officials rarely investigate campaign finance violations: report

Delaware election officials rarely use their basic investigative authorities, issuing only a handful of opinions over the past decade and a half, according to the Delaware News Journal.

The Delaware Department of Elections said it had “no records” of investigations conducted under the authority delegated to it to “investigate information that came to the attention of the [election] commissioner which, if true, would constitute a violation” of state campaign finance law, the Delaware News Journal reported. The Department of Elections has only issued seven advisory opinions in the past 15 years.

The Delaware Department of Elections did not investigate a recent scandal involving the leading Democratic candidate in the upcoming gubernatorial election, according to the Delaware News Journal.

Delaware’s Democratic Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, who is current for governor in 2024, faced scrutiny from her own staff after reviewing bank records that suggested she had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds to her husband, seconds on WHYY, a non-profit regional news outlet. Those payments were not listed in Hall-Long’s publicly available campaign finance reports.

Sources interviewed by WHYY said Hall-Long told staffers she had loaned money to his campaign and used their credit cards to cover campaign-related expenses. He justified the undisclosed payments to his spouse by claiming they were made to repay undisclosed loans he made to his campaign.

Some people involved in Hall-Long’s campaign were unconvinced by her explanation and urged her to drop out, WHYY reported. Hall-Long initially agreed to suspend her campaign, although she later decided not to.

Hall-Long’s campaign was cleared after an internal audit, which it has repeatedly refused to make public, according to the Delaware News Journal. Its audit found “no wrongdoing or wrongdoing” by the campaign.

The Delaware Department of Elections has not received a copy of the Democrat’s internal audit and is not conducting an independent review of her campaign.

A spokesman for the Department of Elections said that “Delaware code does not require a review of the content of submitted campaign finance reports,” the Delaware News Journal reported.

Last night we celebrated powerful victories for reproductive rights across the country!

As a nurse and mother, I am committed to safeguarding and expanding abortion rights. We continue to work together to ensure that everyone has the right to make decisions about their own bodies.

— Dr. Bethany Hall-Long (@bethanyhalllong) November 8, 2023

Delaware election officials sometimes impose penalties on candidates for filing late reports. Election commissioners can choose to impose a $50-a-day penalty on candidates who fail to file their reports on time, according to the Delaware News Journal.

Delaware’s commissioner of elections is appointed by the state’s governor, who is currently a democrat

Delaware is the state of origin of President Joe Biden, who represented in the Senate for 36 years.

Hall-Long and the Delaware Department of Elections did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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